BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

Deuling Incomes

So, I broke past 2 grand for my year to date income from trading.  This includes both dividends and capital gains.  I added another stock today into my portfolio.  I'm pretty excited about this!

Honestly, I love investing. I really do.  It's just like... Fun for me!  Some people like to garden, or collect things, or play video games, or whatever... Investing is my side thing.  I just love watching my portfolio build and grow and evolve.  It's the coolest.

I love following investment news, and financial markets news.  I just love it.

I know, it's probably SOOO boring for some people.  No one wants to manage money or finances.  Most people don't care about stock portfolios.  I guess maybe I like it so much because my grandfather was big on it.  He managed his own stock portfolio.  So, I suppose I feel like, it's a way to connect with my grandfather maybe?  I don't know...  All I know is he was glued to the Wall Street Journal and the nightly news and was all about business news and reading business books as often as possible...

Okay so anyways....

2 grand doesn't seem like much.  But for all intents and purposes, it's pretty much entirely passive income. Yes, it isn't much... But it's money that I've made by just tweaking my current assets.

I traded very little this whole year.  I pretty much just let my stocks ride with only a few small buys and sells.  Mostly... It's just dividend income coming in.

But here's the thing, that 2 grand is just the start.  When you build a nest egg stock portfolio... It's not a sprint.  It's a marathon.  It's something you start building and keep your whole life.  My stock portfolio will live with me the rest of my life.  I'll use the income from it as I go through life.

And as my life changes, my portfolio will change with me.  It's always there, to make changes, to check, to research and work on updating.  It's more than just money.  At least to me it is I guess...

It's something I'm connected to and keeps me grounded.

Alright so, right now, my portfolio is very small...  I really haven't even invested the money I've received from both my mom's estate and the first trust distribution that I got back in October.  I'm just now starting to do that.  So this 2 grand was only income from my own money that I've saved up over the years working.

I'm actually on track to make, probably, another 500 bucks before January.  This means, I'll again, have beaten my previous year's income.  Which is a goal I try to beat each year.

So, here's the deal with all of this.  This whole stock thing and dividend income, makes it so that bumps in the road of life, are less bumpy.

See, most people work jobs... and they receive an income.  That income then goes to pay bills, and for food, and buy clothing and whatever... Pay rent.

But if that income from working is disrupted... Life can get a little frazzled.

That's stressful.

My grandfather quit his job at 50.  Well, he sold his business.  Then he did some consulting work until he was 60, and then... It was just managing investments from then on.

I'm not there yet, but as this flow of investment income continues to build... Eventually, I'll get closer to where he was.  The idea is that, when things get bumpy in a workplace and everyone is like whispering worries about job security, or whatever, any kind of possible scenario you can think of...

When you have investment income that exceeds your work paycheck.

You can sit back and not care about the rumors or gossip.  You could care less.  Because you don't rely on the paycheck to pay bills.

Your investments pay for your bills.  The work paycheck is just fun money.

That's my ultimate goal.  SO no matter where I'm working... I don't care about my paycheck.  It's just fun money.

Again, I'm not there yet as I'm only going to net about 2500 bucks this year in investment income...

But as that climbs and then exceeds my work income?

Perhaps I'll start my next journey in life!  Honestly? I have no clue what that is yet... So, for now I'll stay with my current job.  Just keep building this income stream.  But once it DOES replace that income and my work paycheck just becomes fun money...

Who knows?  Anything is possible!

Once I get my inheritance and trust money moved into income producing investments over the course of the next 6 months to a year, or perhaps 2 years... That 2500 bucks I made this year.... Is probably going to go upwards to close to 15 to 20 grand... And I'll just keep tending to my portfolio to keep increasing that amount.  It all depends on how active, or passive I want to be.  Obviously, I work a day job.  So, my investing is very passive right now.  I don't really put much time into it.  I just let my investments do their own thing and collect the dividends and interest deposits into my account.

I do a little research here and there, and make small changes.

As those investments continue to grow... I'm not sure, perhaps, one day, just invest/trade full time!  Who knows?

The one thing I REALLY think is the coolest about investing is that it doesn't require a physical location.... Which means... I could rent an apartment anywhere on this planet and as long as I have wifi and a laptop... I can make money.

I could just sit under some palm trees poolside in the tropics with my laptop... And work on my investing strategies.

How cool is that?  How cool is an office that is poolside with palm trees and a laptop?  That's pretty damn cool if you ask me!

Or hot?  Because it's a tropical environment?

Anyways, that's a few years off.  In 6 years too, I'll get another check from my trust, which I can then use as more capital for trading.  But I'm fairly certain my investment income salary will be matching my work salary by 6 years from now.  Although, you never know.  Investing does carry risks.  And it's hard to tell what's going to happen in the future.  That's why you make investments based on the most likely outcome.

So, we'll see.

I'm going to peg my dividend/capital gains salary surpassing my work salary at somewhere around 2 to 3 years away.

We'll see... Right now, I'm setting up dueling incomes.  It's mostly, a test to see how close I can get them to match one another.  Right now... My dividend/capital gains income is lagging my work income by a LOT.  But, each year that goes by... That gap has slowly gotten a little less.

The dueling has begun!

If nothing else... I just think it's neat.  And if nothing else nothing else...

At the moment my investment income salary is just a little bit of extra spending cash that I can use to maybe book vacation with, or treat myself to a fancy dinner once or twice a month.

At this point, it's all just starting out.  So, we'll see where I'm at in 6 months, or 12 months, or 24 months after I move that other cash into investments and continue to build my investment portfolio.

Investing is one of those things that really takes 10 to 20 to 30 years to really get going... But as it gets going, once it REALLY gets going... It can start REALLY taking off.  It's all about being patient and building up things slowly.

You make mistakes, you learn from the mistakes.  You do more research, and you just keep learning about managing the portfolio.

I think it's the Yale business club who started with a 10 thousand dollar initial investment and their portfolio is up over a few million?  I mean, that's been since the 40s... So, they have had a while now to build steam.  But that's how powerful it is!  You can start with only a small amount, and over time, it can grow and grow and grow.

Anyways, I love investing and I love my little portfolio.  I'm excited to see where it is as I hit milestones in my life, 35 (next year) 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 80...

And when the time comes... I shall pass my portfolio on to someone younger for them to manage.  Hopefully it's my own children... But I guess I just have to wait and see.

Right now I'm just interested to see how long it takes for my investment income to over take my day job income.  I'm going to say 3 to 5 years.